Thanks Tikituba! I will check that out. I am thinking of toning down the original plan of doing a chair rail all the way around the room and just doing one wall. But like the others have said... I really need to paint this room before I get on to other stuff. All in due time though right?

Thanks for the comments... Yeah the LAVA LOUNGE is just the working title til I find something that really fits. I like your suggestion though. I wanted to call it THE SEA HAG but I'm not up for going in the nautical direction. Anyway for now its the Lave Lounge. Now that the holidays are over I'm hoping to find some more time to work on her. I'll keep the pix coming as I make progress.

I decided to take the advice of everyone and throw up some new paint on the walls. I hate painting but decided to paint the room red with a black glaze. Here are the pix I have thus far.... let me know what you think.

First I had to take out all the tiki stuff... that was a bitch but gives me a reason to dust it when I put it back...

Here is the room emputy and taped off...

Then 2 coats of red paint were put up....

Then went on the glaze. I had never done this before but the end result looks pretty cool I think. I had to put 2 coats on of the glaze to get the effect I wanted.

The photos do not do the paint job justice but you get the idea of what I am doing here. It looks like flames in some spots but it does not read that well with my camera. Next up is to tackle some kind of entry treatment and to something on the cieling. I also plan to build a chair rain across the mirror with a shelf for added display space. All in due time but I will put up pix as I get these jobs done. Chime in with any ideas cause I am always up for suggestions and now is the time to try em out!

Made a run down to Oceanic Arts today and picked up some bamboo... started to burn it but the wind kicked up and I decided I had better wait for a calm day. I can't wait though and part of me wants to pull it inside the house and burn it! Hope to get it up this weekend on the ceiling. I'll post pix when I get em. Thanks for looking and as always let me know your thoughts, feelings and suggestions.

I used Valspar paint and glaze from Lowes. The reason I am telling you the exact name is that the Valspar glaze is tint-able and they can mix it right there for you. Other wise you will have to mix your own glaze in a 3 paint to 2 glaze ratio. The tint isn't cheep either. Its like 40 bucks a pint! But you can easily do a room with it. Thanks for checking out my pix.

Made another trip down to Oceanic Arts and picked up some grass matting. I know there is a name for this stuff but I don't know what to call it.

There was some slight damage to the smaller roll and I talked with the manager about a better price. We got to chatting and he pulled out some giant photos printed on cardboard, of various restaurants he had worked on in the 50, 60, 70s. That's when we were trading ideas on how to put the grass matting on the ceiling. Apparently there are various techniques and each one poses its own challenge. Excited to get started I came home and finished burning the rest of the bamboo I picked up earlier this week.

After that little task was completed I got started with the grass matting. With just the few pieces up I can already feel the change the in the room. I am going to try and finish the rest of the ceiling this weekend.

Made some more progress today on the ceiling... here are some pix of the end result. The hardest part was trying to figure out how to hid the cord from the hang lamp that will hang over my bar. I stoked with the end result. After lurking on this site for years I am finally having a dream come true of having something like this room. I have zero skills with power tools but I'm happy with how it all came out. Its not perfect but it what I could do! As always comments, suggestions and any advice is always appreciated!

Finally got all the matting up...

Then came the task of figuring out how to get the mask up and then how to hide the cord. In the end I decided to run it down the bamboo.

Then I spent the day sizing & cutting bamboo... here are a few pix of the end result. I am going to put some silk vines around the lights. and glue some rope to some of the joints to hide the joints and a few screws that are visible. But after spending over 8 hours on a ladder I think I need to take a break as my nubs are killing me!